Lets redefine aspergers

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Should and can we redefine Aspergers as brain development characterized by lower inter connectivity between parts of the brain that involve executive function, processing of emotions, and interaction with other people ? Such a definition could cover both low and high functioning forms of autism as well as people who actually function without support but still share the same brain functionality.

It would enable us to learn why in some cases such brain functionality leads to severe problems, while in other situations benefits occur. The present behavior focussed diagnosis only covers part of the spectrum.

And it would allow the asperger community to organize in a new way. Recent research seems to support some of my earlier ideas on this subject in http://hansaspergerjunior.blogspot.com/ ... ility.html.

What do you think?

I think the idea is without merit; especially in the light of the abolition of AS as a separate disorder under DSM-V.

May as well re-assign the staterooms on the Titanic.

Just to be clear, does the poll reference the DSM-IV definition, or the "current" (US) DSM-5 definition? From the wording, I wasn't entirely sure.

I'm having technical difficulties with the linked document.

I would ask the writer of the OP if any reference to different verbal and non-verbal communication styles is incorporated into the proposed definition.

I think that autism should be defined in terms of cognition and behavior and neurology instead of just behavior like DSM definitions.

I think that Autism should be defined by a group of people who have each earned a graduate degree in neurology, psychiatry, psychology or general medicine.

I think that autism should be defined in terms of cognition, behavior, and neurology by neuroscientists who study cognition, behavior, and neurology, all of them.

I'm not sure the OP conflicts with the above quoted statement, since the OP is advocating a change in definition, not making one himself.

Well, he did name this thread "Let's Redefine Aspergers". That would strongly imply that he wants a grass-roots effort, and not a professional one.

I do think that the asperger community has a say in whether and what kind of definition is most relevant for our lives. The actual definition is of course work for specialists. Key is whether a broader definition serves a purpose.

I'm referring to the DSM IV definition of course. Asperger is no seperate category anymore in nr. 5.

Then it would be like having the passengers re-assign the staterooms on the Titanic.

And that boat has already left port ...

A broader definition of autism is being researched by scientists in the form of studies on cognition, neurology, and genetics in autistic population.

Broad enough to include just about anyone with an INTJ-type personality?

No, not broader like including more people.

Broader like including more than just behavioral traits observed by psychologists, so finding out what are cognitive traits associated with autism, e.g. high perceptual load or locally-oriented perception, or what are structural and functional differences in autistic brain, e.g. hypoactivation of certain networks.

While the DSM may help psychiatrists, it doesn't always represent what some people who have it believe. The DSM should be compiled of the people with said "disorder" describing what it is (poll in 500 or so) and elaborated upon by nueroscientists.

It wouldn't matter to me if they redefined it or not because psychiatry is just something that I disagree with in general. No matter how much the definitions of psychiatric disorders develop, they are still oversimplifications. Psychiatry doesn't explain human behavior and how the mind works, it just classifies it, psychology and neurology explain it. They should be moving away from psychiatric labels and focusing more on pure psychology and neurology. The focus shouldn't be on roughly what circumstances lead to these arbitrary, so-called disorders, but on what individual psychological and neurological factors shape specific individual traits that make up the entirety of a person's personality and mental state. It often seems like psychiatry is an attempt to classify the behavior of people without first understanding it. No one can understand what goes on in someone else's head without first understanding why and how.

So ... just about everyone ...